COUNTRY FOCUS: TANZANIA
CASE STUDY
Siemon prescribes the perfect network
infrastructure for the National Health
Insurance Fund’s new data centre
Tanzania’s National Health Insurance Fund
decided to construct a new data centre at its
headquarters in Dar es Salaam and specified
state-of-the-art network infrastructure
technology from Siemon throughout.
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aunched in 2001, the National Health Insurance Fund
(NHIF) is Tanzania’s largest health insurance scheme
and is compulsory for public sector workers. NHIF’s scope
of coverage has been widened since 2009 to include private
sector workers and cover a range of heath-related services,
with employers giving 3% of a contribution and employees
also paying 3%.
As the scope of NHIF has grown, so has the organisation’s
reliance upon information technology (IT) to facilitate its
administration and support services. As part of its upgrade
programme, NHIF decided to configure a new data centre at
its headquarters in Dar es Salaam. Bakari Yahaya Mhamali,
NHIF’s Data Centre Manager, explains, “We wanted a facility
that could provide us with cutting edge performance in the
short-term but also cope with our projected expansion plans.
To configure the best possible solution, I contacted Emerging
Communications Limited (E-COM)”.
Also based in Dar es Salaam, E-COM has gained an enviable
reputation as one of the leading IT companies in Tanzania.
It provides highly qualitative and cost-effective services
to a wide variety of clients and has a diverse range of
accreditations and approvals from some of the world’s
leading technology vendors. Saidi Buhero, E-COM’s Managing
Director, states, “We have a team of qualified, motivated
and experienced personnel that can configure exceptional
data centre solutions. As a Siemon Certified Installer, after
discussing the various options with Bakari, I had no hesitation
in recommending a solution that made extensive use of the
company’s products.”
Buhero’s strategy centres around deploying six Siemon
VersaPOD® cabinets that meet the high-density requirements
of the modern data centre. VersaPOD leverages the vertical
space between bayed cabinets for patching and cable
management, freeing critical horizontal space for active
equipment and providing superior density in minimum floor
space. In a standard server rack configuration, 48 port patch
panels required for patching to each server each occupy 2U
worth of horizontal space. With VersaPOD cabinets, these
patch panels can be mounted in the vertical patching area.
For added security, the cabinet doors of the VersaPOD can
also be locked to prevent access to the server connections but
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Six Siemon VersaPOD® cabinets were deployed to meet the
NHIF data centre requirements
still allow access to the patching zones. Based on comparison
studies, Siemon claims that VersaPOD cabinets can reduce the
number of cabinets required in a typical data centre by 20%.
With a total of 92 copper connections, the NHIF data
centre also requires Category 6A cabling that exceeds
current standards. Siemon’s Z-MAX® 6A F/UTP solution
was considered the most suitable option by combining
superb performance and unparalleled usability with security
and robust noise immunity. It also helped speed up the
installation. Iyer Sivakumar, Siemon’s Sales Manager
for Africa, says, “Due its innovative design, Z-MAX 6A
offers significantly reduced installation times when used
in conjunction with our Z-MAX Termination Tool. This
combination means outlets can be terminated in as little as
60 seconds, which helps reduce labour time and costs.”
Complementing Z-MAX is Siemon’s XGLO® multimode
high density plug and play optical fibre cable, incorporating
modules, reel and connect panels. XGLO utilises laser-
optimised fibre for superior transmission performance for up
to 10 Gigabit Ethernet applications and exceeds all ANSI/TIA/
EIA and ISO/IEC insertion loss and return loss requirements.
As with Z-MAX, installation time is also saved thanks to the
use of Siemon’s fibre mechanical splice termination tool and
connectivity system.
The new data centre has been a huge success and NHIF’s
Bakari Yahaya Mhamali is confident that the network
infrastructure solution configured by E-COM will ensure an
unrivalled level of future proofing. He concludes, “The Siemon
technology we have offers best in class performance and will
help us continue to develop NHIF for the benefit of as many
people as possible across Tanzania.” n
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